The new terrain editor

[ASL Veteran]

I have to say that after making something like 60 scenarios in CMBO and CMBB that nobody ever heard of, that new map and terrain editor totally blew me away!!! The choice to go with 8 meter squares seemed kind of odd, but as long as the number is easily divisible into 40 meters then I can make it work . The elevation editor took a little getting used to, but after about 20 minutes I got the hang of it for the most part. It's much much better. I can remember hours upon hours of placing individual elevations on my maps trying to smooth things and make small undulations, but with the map basically auto calculating the elevations after the designer puts in the contour lines it's a pretty big time saver. The things you can do with buildings now is absolutely spectacular! The variety is almost endless with the different doors, windows, and exterior choices and combinations. I also found it interesting that the buildings don't necessarily need to be restricted in placement by conforming exactly to 8 meter squares. It really makes it possible to put the buildings close to the road if you want to. All the new doodads are really cool too. I mean, traffic lights and park benches!

I was just using the map editor in the demo though as I'm waiting for the game to come in the mail. Even so, I can tell that the map tools for scenario designer are at least .... 8 jillion times better than anything that could be produced in CMx1. There also seems to be a lot of flexibility with the scenarios too in regards to the victory conditions. The ability of the designer to assist the AI with some guidance for how to fight is pretty tremendous too. There were cases in CMx1 where a scenario was virtually unplayable vs the AI as a certain force because of it's limitations. Now, since the scenario designer can code in some behaviors for the AI ....!!!!

I'm very impressed. I can't wait for the Normandy title to come out so I can really dig into that editor full force. I don't know very much about modern stuff - I may tinker around in it, but I can't see myself making something for public consumption with Shock Force. With the existence of the repository though - ya never know.

It would be nice if there could be a 'castle' building set added for Normandy. Just something basic like a curtain wall and some generic towers. Maybe a gatehouse building too. Nothing fancy - but would definitely add spice to some maps. I'm also curious if, when you knock out walls on the buildings, you could do something like knock out the bottom two floors on opposite sides of a three story building and after adding two similar buildings on opposite sides make a little thing whereby vehicles could pass under a little 'building bridge' into a courtyard or something if you follow what I mean.

Anyway, kudos on the new scenario editor. It's 8 jillion times better than anything we had to work with in CMx1

[Combatintman]

Why the need for a castle/chateau - how many were fought over that anybody would have read about? I go to Normandy in about 3 hours time - not one of the stands on the battlefield tour begins or even has the word 'chateau' in it.

[MikeyD]

Its good for us old jaded CMSF hands to read stuff like this. We've got so used playing with the game features over the past year+ that reading a newbie's enthusiasm makes us think "Oh yeh, he's right - the terrain editor is cool!"

[panzermartin]

A small norman castle..why not? Europe is literally filled with towers and old buildings, it wont harm to add some history and medieval flavor to a map.

It would be nice to see BFC collaborating with a 3rd party for Normandy environments just like they did with the british module to expand the editor capabilities. Some industrial buildings, harbor facilities, railways, etc.

[Combatintman]

Ok ... the point I make is that it would be nice if the priorities for the map editor represented stuff that was actually fought over rather than stuff that people see in war films. If there is the capacity to please both audiences then no problem but if a castle/chateau was thrown in at the expense of a bridge for instance then that would be a bit pants.

[panzermartin]

Yes of course. Thats why I'd like to see BFC getting help with the terrain objects. To be able to provide us with more than just the essentials.

[ASL Veteran]

I am pretty certain that at one of the bridge crossings fought over in Normandy by the US paratroopers there was a castle nearby - and that the Germans attacked out of it at some point. I wasn't really thinking in terms of fighting inside the castle, but rather that a castle building could be placed on the map rather than the placement of some generic large building if the building that was there was actually a castle. Chateau building types would be interesting too though - didn't even think of that!